Look who's 5!!!

This big ol boy just turned 5 on March 18th.
Five is a big deal to this boy's mom! Not only is it the start of Kindergarten, but it is also the start of MANY memories (that he can ACTUALLY remember). We had 2 parties. One with family and one with 14 friends. I must say a good time was had by all, and the theme of this years presents: Weapons of mass destruction. Wes is REALLY into 1) sports and 2) weapons. He got the latter...
The family party:

The kid party:




Favorite Pics of the day (Thanks to my friend's hubby Jim):

No post is complete w/o a crazy face from Lando

Happy Birthday to my favorite little jokester who is so full of personality, insight and light! Love ya Wes!

Look who's 7!!!

My baby girl is 7. FOR REAL? Don't old people have 7 year olds? We celebrated Syd's day of birth by eating McDonand's with her at school (in which we made all the other kids jealous). Then that night we had Grandma and Grandpa Banks as well as Uncle Danner over for an EXTRAVAGANZA (aka dinner). I told Syd since we had such a HUGE b-day party for her last year (if you don't remember, 17 of her closest friends came to the raging party at our house) we were just doing a family one this year. She was okay with that. For dinner she requested shrimp linguine for a main course and cheesecake for dessert. So I did just that. We also had salad, and bruchetta (made by Aaron). The cheesecake was no ordinary cheesecake either! It was chocolate raspberry cheesecake, complete with a chocolate layer over the top! DELICIOUS, if I say so myself! It's so nice to have family around to just come over for the night/party! We LOVE IT! We also love our cute little 7 year old who brings so much joy, life, pizzaz, not to mention DRAMA to our home!! Here she is with all her fun presents and cake!
Syd around her 1st B-day! AWWW!



All the goods. LUCKY!!

Weekend of Estrogen!

I had the opportunity to meet with all my sisters, sis-in-law and mom at my sister's house in Austin...and what a fun weekend it it was! We all left our kids at home with the hubbies (except for Janet, who hosted. Her hubby and kids were there, but they were GREAT sports) and so it was TRUELY a relaxing, girl filled weekend. Here are some of our activities:
We went on the river-walk in Downtown Austin with all the dogs (it doubled as a dog park too).

My cute nephew Noah posing on the walk (I love this pic)

Stevie Ray Von (sp) the musician (Austin is famous for music/live music).

A little bit of texting...

A WHOLE lot of gathering and talking. Talking until like 2 AM every night! We just couldn't stop!!

A cool gazebo

Turtle Tree

Girlie Pic! I heart my fam!!

Me and my niece Emily (and a random dog)

Em turns 9! I ended up frosting the cake and then making a crack in it. It was a disaster, but it still tasted good! HA!
Austin, Noah, and Em by the river

Some other activities NOT pictured:
Eating some good Tex Mex food. Best shrimp tacos of my life.
Eating of donuts (might be the best EVER) My donut had fried bananas, cream cheese and brown sugar on top. Others ranged from peach, to chocolate raspberry, to quadruple chocolate...can you say YUM!?
Church
Visiting the kids at school for lunch
Pedicures (OH YEAH)
PTA lunch for school (I did more PTA stuff away from home than I do AT home)
Shopping
Sushi Night
Bowling
I feel so relaxed, rejuvenated and like I can be a good mom and wife again. What an AWESOME weekend (well it was actually 5 days) with an awesome family! I missed my kids and hubby a lot and this trip makes me appreciate them even more!

Fun in Feb

A bed made by Syd and Wes for "baby" Landon

For Valentines day we had some friends come over and frost cupcakes. It was a messy good time!

We went to our favorite local beach and hiked around, and threw rocks in the ocean for hours! Can you see Aaron, Syd, and Wes among the rocks? Wes is camouflaged...

Mr. Rock-Thrower-Man


After this picture he sat down in the water and got soaked and sandy, but had a marvelous time!

Fun with Uncle Danner
Aaron did it again! He made a fly fishing bench/table so he can organize his mess, I mean, materials. This boy has mad carpenter skills!

Adding to the Family

If you haven't heard, we are expecting baby #4. I am around 14-15 weeks due July 17th. The technician said it was a little early, but she is pretty sure the baby is a boy! Poor Sydnie. She is still at school and so we haven't told her yet, but I have a feeling she will take the news kind of hard. She wants a little sister! We are very excited though! Landon and this little guy will be 2 years apart (almost to the day) and they will be good buds. Here are some ultrasound pics. I think he looks like a teddy bear/alien, because that second picture his face looks like a bear (with his arms up). LOL! Warning: the quality of the pics are bad...I don't have a scanner.